Masters World Relay Marks Fall at New England Long Course Champs

By Bob Seltzer
MBOSTON, Mass., Aug. 6. THE 2001 New England Long Course Championship held Saturday August 4th at Harvard's Blodget Pool, saw two world and four national relay records fall.

The New England Masters Swim Club (NEM), the largest Masters swim club in the U.S., has a particuarly strong contingent of very fast 45+ women and 50+ men. Prior to the meet, NEM already held several USMS national records and FINA world records.

In Masters swimming it's a challenge to assemble four fast swimmers in the same place and same time. Given its bench strenght in this age group, NEM fielded three
very strong relays in the 200-239 age group and, proving that NEM swimming depth includes the younger ages, one 100-119 age group.

Setting the tone for the day, NEM set its first USMS national record in the first event, the 800 Free Relay. The men's foursome of Bob Seltzer, Jerry
Demuro, Dan Rogacki and Greg Shaw swam the distance relay in a time of 9:15.88 breaking the USMS National record by more than 11 seconds formerly held by Gold Coast Masters. (Note: For some inexplicable reason FINA does not recognizes Masters World Relay Records at distances of 400 and 800 meters). NEM men now hold the USMS 800 Free Relay record at both LCM (200-39) and SCY (45+)courses.

Next up in the NEM relay record attemps were the sprint relays for the mixed 200-239 age group. NEM currently holds the 45+ USMS 200 Free relay record
and three of the four members of that relay (Joel Feldman, Jacki Hirsty and
Dan Rogacki) were present at Harvard. Furthermore, given that Jacki Hirsty
currently holds the world records at 50 Free (SCM and LCM) and Dan Rogacki
is a former world record holder at 50 meters, NEM's chances appeared pretty
good. The team of Joel Feldmann, Dan Rogacki, Greg Shaw and Jacki Hirsty swam the mixed 200-239 200 medley relay in a time of 2:07.56 breaking the
world record formerly held by Tamalpais Aquatics
Mastersby exactly one second.

Later in the meet the same foursome swam the Mixed 200-239 200 free relay in 1:54.13 breaking the world record by more than 1 second, which was also formerly held by Tamalpais Aquatics Masters.

Proving that NEM swimmers are relay threats in the younger age brackets, the team of Jessica Stokes, Brian Fehlau, Stephanie Morwaski and Jason Eddy swam
the Mixed 100-119 400 free relay in a time of 4:00.76 breaking the USMS national record, formerly held by Walnut Creek Masters, by nearly seven seconds.

The record breaking foursome continued the tradition established by NEMs who workout at Harvard's Blodgett Pool. The local Cambridge Masters workout group, hosts of this year's New England LC Championship, have set at least one national record at every New England championship meet held at that their home pool.

15 NEW ENGLAND INDIVIDUAL RECORDS FALL AT MEET

The following swimmers set new individual New England records last weekend: